By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday cited Hitler in support of his contention that a presidential system can coexist with a “unitary state,” i.e., with a non-federal government. The United States has a presidential system, but the presidency’s powers are limited because it is a federal […]
Radical Al-Shabab uses Trump in Recruiting Video & Muslim preachers denounce him along with ISIL
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The foremost academic expert on Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) and Muslim radical thought, Will McCants at Brookings, tweeted out late Friday: Shabab uses Trump's anti-Muslim statement in new recruitment video (10:50 mark): https://t.co/Amdr4NUH3l — Will McCants (@will_mccants) January 1, 2016 (I apologize that YouTube removed the content […]
Top 7 Middle East Foreign Policy Challenges in 2016
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – My own feeling is that the US engagement with the Middle East is likely to remain so intense only for another two decades or so. As fossil fuels are replaced with renewables, the outsized role that the oil Gulf plays in world affairs will decline. The […]
Most important Neglected Middle East Stories of 2015
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The past 12 months saw enormous political, economic and military changes in the Middle East, which have left its geopolitics changed for the foreseeable future. The US coverage of the area has focused on Syria, Iraq, Daesh (ISIS, ISIL), Turkey, Russia and Iran in a big […]
In Retrospect: A Year of Sharpening Contradictions
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) Reprint, revised Note: The horrific murder of 12 persons and the wounding of 11 in the attack on the staff of the satirical weely Charlie Hebdo by terrorists on January 7 this year was followed on the evening of 13 November by six coordinated attacks, killing 130 people, including […]
Rare victory for Freedom of speech in Turkey, as Pianist allowed to quote Omar Khayyam
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In a rare victory for freedom of speech in Turkey, the country’s Supreme Court of Appeals has completely overturned a lower court ruling that sentenced world-famous pianist Fazil Say to a suspended sentence of 10 months in prison. Say’s crime? To tweet out passages from the […]
Top 5 Things for which We should be grateful to Arabic Writing
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – When a teacher in rural Augusta county, Virginia, decided to expose her students to the Arabic script (a piece of calligraphy writing out the Muslim profession of faith), the backlash from some furious parents so hinted at violence that county schools had to be closed for […]
Europol: 1% of 2014 European Terrorism by Muslims
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Europol* report on European terrorism for 2014 would obviously look different for the horrible year of 2015. So too was 2011 an outlier, when far right wing Islamophobe Anders Breivik killed 77 Norwegian leftists for being soft on Islam. But it is worthwhile considering it, […]
Will Mosul rise against Daesh/ ISIL? If not, who can liberate it?
By Nawzat Shamdeen | (Niqash.org) | – – “Everyone says zero hour is coming closer. Some of the politicians – including the Prime Minister – have said that operations to liberate Mosul have already started,” a Mosul man, who still lives in the extremist-occupied city, wrote in a message sent to NIQASH on social media. […]
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